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Edited By Keith Allan and Kasia M. Jaszczolt

This book "fills the unquestionable need for a comprehensive and up-to-date handbook on the fast-developing field of pragmatics" and "includes contributions from many of the principal figures in a wide variety of fields of pragmatic research as well as some up-and-coming pragmatists."

SUMMARY The present monograph addresses a topic central to cognitive linguistics. Eversince the seminal works of the discipline such as Lakoff and Johnson (1980) andLangacker (1987, 1991) metaphor is front and center in this linguistic approach.A wide range of metaphor-related data is currently being analyzed. The studiescover a broad range of languages and various linguistic segments, and an arrayof research techniques. Gerard J. Steen, a professor of Language Use andCognition at Free University in Amsterdam, Holland, is well established as oneof the researchers in the field – among other things, he supervised a researchproject titled ''Metaphor in Discourse''. We thus have an established expertaddressing a central issue of a linguistic approach, but the significance of thetopic treated in the present book goes even beyond that fact. Unlike the socalled ''formal approaches'' (Minimalism and previous versions of generativism,HPSG, OT, etc.), which maintain a high level of formalization while leavinglarge spheres of human linguistic abilities unaccounted for, cognitivelinguistics is wide-encompassing yet rather low on formalization. The basicquestion asked by a reader of the present book is thus if research on metaphorcan be formalized and even further, if cognitive linguistic can overcome itsobvious methodological disadvantages while retaining its broad coverage.

The declared goal of the book is stated somewhat more cautiously, as follows:''Finding Metaphor in Grammar and Usage aims to map the field of this developmentin theory and research from a methodological perspective'' ( back cover).

At the top level of its architecture, the book is divided into three parts and aconcluding chapter. The first part is titled ''Foundation'' and it contains ageneral methodological framework of the monograph. The two subsequent parts,''Finding Metaphor in Grammar'' and ''Finding Metaphor in Usage'' put theaforementioned methodological apparatus at work in concrete investigation ofmetaphor. At this and at all lower levels the book is superbly segmented andclearly streamlined toward fulfilling its declared goal.

The first part (Foundations) comprises five chapters. The first chapter (Mappingthe field, pp. 3-26) establishes three major delineations: grammar versus usage,language versus thought and symbol versus behavior and employs them as follows:''Combining these contrasts leads to a 2*2*2 configuration, producing eightdistinct areas for locating different types of language research'' (Steen,2007:4). Each of the eight fields in the grid generates its pertinent researchquestion, which creates the following list of questions the present monograph iscentered around (with each question being treated in one or two chapters in thesecond and third part of the book):

1. When does a conventionalized linguistic form-meaning pairing count asmetaphorical? 2. When does any linguistic form-meaning pairing in text and talk count asmetaphorical? 3. When does a conceptual structure related to a conventionalized linguisticform count as metaphorical? 4. When does a conceptual structure related to any linguistics form in text andtalk count as metaphorical? 5. When does the storing, acquisition or even loss of a conventionalizedlinguistic form-meaning pairing count as metaphorical? 6. When does the production or reception in text or talk of any linguisticform-meaning pairing count as metaphorical 7. When does the storing, acquisition, or even loss of a conceptual structurerelated to a conventionalized linguistic form count as metaphorical? 8. When does the production or reception in text or talk of a conceptualstructure related to any linguistic form count as metaphorical?

The second chapter (pp. 27-46) addresses ''The deductive approach''. The authoremphasizes strong sides of deduction, primarily in the form of the ConceptualMetaphor Theory, but he also cautions against confusing mere compatibility ofresults with converging evidence.

''Conceptualization: Theoretical definitions'' is treated in Chapter 3 (pp.47-72), which addresses four models of metaphor, emphasizing their mutualdifferences. The two-domain approach, the many-space approach, theclass-inclusion approach, and the career of metaphor approach differ in thenumber and nature of conceptual structures they involve, in the relationsbetween them, their range of conventionality, their view of metaphor in mind.They furthermore differ in the range of linguistic and rhetorical form, theirfocus on grammar and/or usage, as well as in their predictions about andempirical evidence for cognitive processing.

Chapter 4 (Operationalization: Operational definitions, pp. 73-102) logicallyfollows from the previous chapter in that it attempts to translate previouslydiscussed theoretical concepts into operational conceptual tools. This chapterdiscusses the criteria for metaphor identification, the units of analysis, andthe decision-making procedure. Here, just like in the previous analysis, theauthor emphasizes the diversification of the field and impossibility ofestablishing uniform criteria: ''In considering the operationalization ofmetaphor, it should be kept in mind that there is not just one specific way ofoperationalizing metaphor. The operational definition of metaphor depends on theresearch area in which metaphor is investigated'' (Steen, 2007: 103).

The final chapter of the first part of the book (Application: Data collectionand analysis, pp. 103-132) draws the argument further toward applied research bydiscussing data types, data collection and analysis.

The four chapters of the second part (Finding metaphor in grammar) are designedto address the aforementioned questions 1,3,5, and 7. Chapter 6 (Linguisticforms in grammar, p. 133-170) is centered around question 1 stated above (Whendoes a conventionalized linguistic form-meaning pairing count as metaphorical?).No straightforward answer is offered. Rather, the answer depends on a number ofoperational decisions being made while deploying introspective, observational,and experimental methods.

Chapter 7 (Conceptual structures in grammar (1): Domains, pp. 171-200) andChapter 8 (Conceptual structures in grammar (2): Mappings, pp. 201-238) focus onquestion 3 (When does a conceptual structure related to a conventionalizedlinguistic form count as metaphorical?). Answering this question is a two stepprocess. First, two distinct conceptual domains are identified and discussed.The problems here involve establishing the level of abstraction, selectingpolysemous lexemes, and deploying a descriptive framework. Second, the nature ofa mapping between these two domains is identified – this primarily involvesdeciding on the relative salience of the two domains and establishing the levelof similarity required for a mapping.

The final chapter of the second part of the book (Cognitive processes andproducts in grammar, pp. 229-263) tackles the aforementioned questions 5 and 7.The author emphasizes specific features of this segment: ''The methodologicalsituation in the area of grammar as cognitive process and product is radicallydifferent than in the area of grammar as symbolic system and structure. Insymbolic research, all three types of data collection play an important role,and can produce evidence that may be compared with each other in order to seewhether it converges to the same conclusion. In the area of the behavioralresearch of grammar, however, there is a clear scale of usefulness: experimentalresearch outranks observational research, while research by means ofintrospective data collection raises questions about its function in research,since it usually conflates data collection with theory formation or dataanalysis'' (263).

The first two chapters of the third part of the book (Linguistic forms andconceptual structures in usage (1): Metaphorical language use, pp. 267-308 andLinguistic forms and conceptual structures in usage (2): Other forms ofmetaphor, pp. 309-344) address metaphor as a symbolic unit in usage (i.e.,attempt to provide answers to the aforementioned questions 2 and 4). The authorpoints out the danger of large sets of usage data (especially in languagecorpora) which, without a proper procedures in place can compromise the results.He furthermore points to the forms of metaphor other than metaphorical languageand outlines the procedure to identify them.

The final chapter of the third part (Cognitive processes and products in usage,pp. 345-378) discusses metaphor in usage approached as behavior (i.e., theaforementioned questions 6 and 8). According to the author, it is imperativethat there exist operational definitions of the processes, cognitive units,symbolic structures, and cognitive structures involved in the process.

The book is concluded by Chapter 13 (Evidence for metaphor in grammar and usage,pp. 381-403), which summarizes the previous analysis by outlining the mainfindings of the eight questions stated at its beginning. The author states thefollowing: ''My main aim in this book has been to tease apart a number of aspectsof metaphor identification in language which are frequently conflated in variousways in contemporary empirical research'' (381). He further points out thefollowing: ''One of my main points has been to show that it is possible toformulate general methodological guidelines of doing empirical research onmetaphor identification which go beyond most of the guidelines followed untilnow, at least in a lot of linguistics'' (382) and ''Another main point in myargument has been to recognize the need for an encompassing, systematic,consistent and relevant ordering of the field in order to provide orientation tomany questions and issues that have to be addressed in the study of metaphor''(290) and finally ''The third important theme of this book has been to emphasizethat the nature of converging evidence can be made more precise and open forcritical discussion'' (399).

EVALUATIONReading of this monograph will leave no doubt as to the fact that the author wasable to present his claims in a systematic anD efficient manner. Thearchitecture of the book consequently builds its arguments, the coverage of thefield (albeit restricted to just one approach, cognitive linguistics) is mostcomprehensive, the conclusions are logically driven and clearly stated.

This book is an important step in increasing the level of methodological rigorin metaphor research, and, more broadly, in cognitive linguistics. However, itdoes not offer straightforward formal mechanisms (it does not even attempt to doso), but rather points to general heuristics and possible pitfalls. With thisexcellent book cognitive linguistics becomes more methodologically self-awarehowever in its level of formalization still remains far-apart from formalapproaches.